Intentionally Caring
by Lenn Zeller, (volunteer) Director of Conference Care
It is sometimes said that the larger the church the more impersonal it becomes. Steve Timmis and Tim Chester, in their book, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community, say: “Too often, however, churches are not a context for making disciples so much as occasions for acknowledging relative strangers. Experience teaches that there is also an inverse ratio at work: the larger the group, the more inevitable the superficiality of our relationships,” (page 111). Others agree that larger churches cannot provide the kind of community and fellowship that is common in smaller congregations, where everybody knows not only your name but pretty much everything about you.
But I’m not so sure it always works that way. I have spent most of my ministry in smaller churches, and it is true that we have enjoyed many deep and abiding relationships with lots of church folks along the way. But at the same time, I have on numerous occasions been quite surprised to find that even in a smaller congregation people don’t always know everybody else in the pews around them. There can be a remarkable lack of familiarity even among people who worship together on a regular basis.
Which says to me that in congregations large and small we need to be intentional about knowing and caring for one another in the body of Christ. Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34) It’s part of our “Irreducible Core”: Love God, love others, and as you go, make disciples. But apparently, even in smaller congregations that love does not happen naturally or easily. We need to be purposeful and careful to make it so.
Loving one another is part of the goal and ministry of Conference Care. With so many churches, pastors, chaplains and missionaries spread across the nation and literally the world, we have to work very hard to care for one another and to love as Jesus has loved us. We need to find ways to be intentional about getting and staying connected, supporting and encouraging one another through the tough times of life and ministry in a fallen world, and even sometimes holding one another accountable. Please join me in praying for our Conference as we seek to expand and increase the Conference Care ministry in our midst, so that we can be purposeful and more effective in knowing and loving one another.
